The Office of the Texas State Chemist (OTSC) hosted a conference call yesterday, in response to the FDA Notice related to Hurricanes, Flooding, and Power Outages. The Office of the Texas State Chemist is the State Agency that enforces the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. During the conference call, OTSC stressed that they were available [...]
In response to the flooding related to Hurricane Harvey, FDA issued a notice that any food or food ingredients exposed to flood waters may not enter the food chain. This notice is not specific to cotton or field crops, but covers all types of human and animal feeds. Click here to read the full notice. In [...]
On August 31, a Texas Federal judge invalidated the expansion of the federal overtime rule. As the rule was originally written, the salary threshold for employees to qualify as exempt from overtime pay requirements was increased from $23,660 per year to $47,476 per year. District Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant found that DOL does not [...]
The OSHA Electronic Submission of Injury and Illness Records rule became effective on January 1, 2017. Under the original rule, gins were required to submit the records from their completed 2016 Form 300A. by July 1, 2017. After the first year, covered establishments must submit the information by March 2 of each year. When July 1 rolled around, the [...]
Sharyland Utilities announced today that its customers will now become customers of Oncor. This deal is a part of the settlements in PUC Docket 46957 - Application of Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC for Authority to Change Rates, and PUC Docket 45414 - Review of the Rates of Sharyland Utility Company. In essence, the Sharyland Distribution [...]
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has issued a new version of the I-9 form. Employers must begin using this form by September 18, but you can start using the new form now if you would like. On our web site, we have three I-9 related links under "Gin Resources"/"Forms and Form Information". The first [...]
If your gin had a contract with TEEMCO for an SPCC plan, or for Tier II reporting, you will probably be contacted by Jessica O'Hern from Affordable Compliance Engineering. Jessica contacted our office Monday to let us know they had acquired the data from the SPCC plans that TEEMCO had done. Since they already have all the data, [...]
We have received the first contact back from the Wage and Hour Inspectors. In the first contact, the inspectors called the gin and pressured them to sign agreements quickly to avoid court action. The gin received instructions on which workers to pay back wages, and also received a very concerning tolling agreement that allows the [...]
A new I-9 form has been issued and must be used for all new hires after January 22, 2017. This does not affect your current employees, but for any future hires, go to our web site and use the I-9 link found on the forms page. The updated form is already available there, so this [...]
As most of you know by now, there are several teams of DOL Wage and Hour inspectors going through cotton gins in the Lubbock area. If you are inspected, please let us know, and please forward any citations you receive as soon as you receive them. Most inspections are going relatively smoothly, but there are [...]
